One of the many reasons people who are charged with a DUI are pulled over in the first place is because of some sort of erratic driving. This can be the casual "roll through a stop sign" or crossing over a double yellow line a few times over the course of a mile. This sort of erratic driving is one of the principal indications that police look for when making a DUI traffic stop. This sort of driving however doesn't necessarily need to be witnessed by a police officer in order for you to be arrested for DUI. In Pennsylvania a fellow driver who identifies themselves to police may report the kind of erratic driving normally associated with those who are operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Their report to police will provide sufficient probable cause for the police to make a traffic stop which may then lead to a DUI.
In a recent case out of Butler County Pennsylvania, police officers received a 911 dispatch call advising them that a named motorist had observed a driver almost hit a wall of a bridge, run a stop sign and drive onto a sidewalk. Officers received the driver's registration number and location from the motorist, caught up to the driver and while they did not observe any bad driving still had a reasonable suspicion to pull the driver over. The Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld the legality of the traffic stop, saying that the police acting on a tip from a named motorist was Constitutional.
Earlier this month in Delaware County, police were notified by a passing motorist as to the location of a Wallingford-Swarthmore school bus that had crashed into a series of bushes and was swinging wildly, almost flipping over. The motorist followed the bus as he dictated its location to a 911 dispatcher on his cell phone. The police eventually caught up to the bus and arrested it's driver, charging her with DUI.
Local townships and counties also sponsor highway traffic safety programs, like this one in Montgomery County, that encourage motorists to report suspected cases of drivers who are driving under the influence of alcohol. If you have been arrested and charged with DUI in Pennsylvania contact Jason R. Antoine.
